British Empire Dbq

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During 1488-1914 the world witnessed the rise and fall of the British Empire. Many historians argue that the cause of the collapse of the British Empire was in fact due to the end of the Age of Imperialism and Colonialism. These were the foundations in which the British Empire was built. The idea of colonialism is a theory in which the success of an Empire was determined by the acquisition of more land. Colonialism is defined as a political and economic system that resulted in an empire gaining power over smaller countries that would thereafter form colonies. Examples of colonial rule were the Spanish expansion in America and the Dutch Settlers in South Africa. It is proven in source 1 that, “Colonialism, Western, a political-economic phenomenon …show more content…

Imperialism forced people to accept Western Ways as they believed it to be superior to any other native culture they come across in their respective colonies. Even though colonialism and imperialism were designed to help empires succeed the method in which this was achieved was only effective because of the exploitation received by the natives. In source3, it can be deduced that foreign rule gave way for imported goods therefore wiping out any preexisting native culture, industry and local craft industries. This lead to the natural wealth of territories being funneled out only to be later absorbed by the mother …show more content…

“British leaders had no doubt that Britain must uphold its status as the third great power, and that it could only do so by maintaining its empire and the Commonwealth link.’ Britain had become a 3rd world superpower as a result of being overtaken by the USSR and USA. The USA followed the practice of capitalism which was based on the idea of demand and supply, which helped reinforce it defeats over Japan and Nazi Germany. The USSR, followed the theory of Communism, which was based on the ideas of Karl Marx, which was that the wealth of nation should be shared amongst its people. Even though these ideologies were different they were able to form an alliance that overlooked all the tensions to form the Grand Alliance that would help Britain under Churchill defeat Nazi Germany in 1945. America rose to power in 1914 with the help of the Britain in one of the most unlikely ways and this was mainly caused by the fact Britain started infringing themselves in debt for military support from the USA. Because of the huge supplies that the Americans started stockpiling, large numbers of orders, mostly weaponry, forced its economy to switch from civil to military production in something referred to as War Mobilization.

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